1879.] SPORTS AND SPORTING. Ul 



wish, however, to detract from its reputation, as probably it may not 

 have had exactly the treatment it requires ; but grown under the same 

 conditions as P. pulcherrima, I do not consider it so useful as the 

 latter and older variety. R. B. 



Brayton. 



SPORTS AND SPORTING. 



I am going to write a few words (as few as possible) on a subject 

 on which I am, in common with every one else, very ignorant, and 

 that is on "sports." Sports do occur, although at extremely rare 

 intervals, considering the millions of plants which do not sport to 

 the one which does. That much is certain and unquestioned. But 

 whether this occurs in accordance with some ruling law in vegetable 

 physiology, no one, so far as the writer is aware, has ever made clear, 

 or even stated a plausible theory concerning it to account for the fact. 

 There is another thing in vegetable physiology similar in some re- 

 spects, but greatly different in others, which is also unexplained, but, 

 unlike the " sports " proper, has been much theorised on without 

 making us much the wiser — I refer to the influence of scions on 

 stocks. In a great majority of cases a stock retains its original nature, 

 no matter how great may be the difference between it and the scion. 

 I say in a majority of instances, although a good many examples of 

 the opposite have occurred, showing that occasionally the stock does 

 partake of the scion's nature — nay, properly authenticated instances 

 have occurred when the stock was wellnigh transformed into the 

 living image of its scion. To be sure, not many, if any, experiments 

 have been carried on to test the influence of the scion on the stock, 

 else, doubtless, a great many more instances might have been chron- 

 icled, — perhaps as many as on the reverse side of the question — the 

 influence of the stock over the scion. When the latter occurs it is at 

 once seen, if at all marked in its features ; while what influence the 

 scion may have exercised on the stock is hid, buried, and the growth 

 which might show the influence is carefully repressed, and when the 

 head dies the stock is grubbed out. Still, we have enough instances 

 to show that generally the scion does not alter the character of the 

 stock. No matter how long may be the life of a hybrid perpetual 

 Rose, if budded on the Manetti, when the Rose dies up comes the 

 Manetti briar as pure in blood as its parent was when taken from its 

 sunny home ; and in no case that I have seen, or remember reading 

 of, has the influence been noticeable. And yet we have enough of 

 instances to show that, no matter how inexplicable it may be, the 



